BENTON TOWNSHIP - Although Spring is still a month away, it was hard to tell this past weekend as temperatures soared to a peak of 70 degrees on Saturday, making for some fantastic bird watching weather.

The “Great Backyard Bird Count,” an annual nationwide citizen-led effort over four days to collect data on wild birds, took place across the country this past weekend.

Described as an “online citizen-science project,” the effort was started and organized by Cornell University and the National Audubon Society, with the first count launching in 1998.

The idea is quite simple: Anyone anywhere in the world can participate simply taking 15 minutes or more to tally the number and kinds of birds they see, then report the data to the event’s official website at gbbc.birdcount.org.

The results are continually collected, displayed in real-time online and can be explored in various ways.

This year the Great Backyard Bird Count ran from Friday, Feb. 17 to Monday, Feb 20. By 7 p.m. on Saturday alone, over 35,000 tallies were submitted to this year’s count

By Sunday afternoon, 70,748 checklists had been submitted, with 4,861 species observed and over 1 million individual birds counted.

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Chris and Larry Griggs, of Brunswick, took advantage of the unusually warm February weather by making a trip to the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday.(Photo: Jon Stinchcomb/News Herald)

One area hotspot for the bird counting was the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, especially given the beautiful weather over the weekend. In addition to the GBBC, the refuge also had its drive open and the nonprofit Friends of the Ottawa NWR celebrated its 20th anniversary.

“The refuge and the (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) have been encouraging people to enjoy watching birds forever,” said Justin Woldt, visitor services manager at the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge.

Woldt said they have also been encouraging people to partake in the Great Backyard Bird Count for a long time as well, whether at the refuge or even just from their own backyards like the name suggests.

But with all of the various activities going on at the refuge, Woldt said by early afternoon on Saturday over 220 people had stopped by the visitor’s center at the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge.

This bald eagle was spotted just outside the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday as the 'Great Backyard Bird Count' was ongoing.(Photo: File)